The invention relates to a component, in particular for a vehicle seat, with at least three, preferably at least four plate-like elements which are connected to one another and are oriented at least approximately parallel to one another, wherein pairs of elements comprising elements which are at least partially in contact with one another are in each case directly connected to one another, in particular welded, in the region in which they are in contact.
International patent application WO 2006/040276 A1 discloses a component according to the invention for a vehicle seat. Said component comprises a layered arrangement of approximately identically thick sheet-metal plates which are in contact with one another in a sheet-like manner, with each sheet-metal plate being connected to the sheet-metal plate located directly therebelow by means of laser welding, with a pair of plates being formed. While the topmost sheet-metal plate is, of course, easily accessible to the laser beam which acts from above, the welding of the pairs of plates located lower down takes place in each case in the region of recesses in the sheet-metal plates which are located thereabove and through which the laser beam reaches its location of action.
In the case of small components of complex construction, for example backrest inclination adjusters of vehicle seats, the construction space available for providing a multiplicity of such recesses may possibly not be sufficient.
Of course, it is conceivable also to manufacture a layered component by two sheet-metal plates being placed one on the other and being welded together, and subsequently a further sheet-metal plate being placed onto said pair of plates and being welded to the sheet-metal plate located therebelow, and for this operation to be repeated until the desired layering height is achieved. However, a welding bead generally arises in the region of the weld and interferes with the next sheet-metal plate being placed on, and therefore has to be removed in a complicated manner beforehand.
It is known from patent application DE 10 2005 001 606 to connect three sheet-metal plates of differing thickness lying one on another together by means of laser welding. However, this operation requires a special sequence of the sheet-metal plates in a manner such that the laser beam impinges on the thinnest sheet-metal plate and welds the latter to the thickest sheet-metal plate through the central sheet-metal plate. Furthermore, because of the lower application of heat and correspondingly reduced distortion, the precision is basically better when welding together two sheet-metal plates than when connecting three sheet-metal plates by means of a single weld seam.